Survey: Toyota, Honda, Ford are top brands for consumers

Survey: Toyota, Honda, Ford are top brands for consumers
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090108/ANA08/901079947/1018

Toyota, Honda and Ford rank as the best brands in consumers' minds, an
annual Consumer Reports survey found.

Toyota finished first for the third consecutive year of the study, which
involved randomly questioning more than 1,700 U.S. adults in early
December. After conducting the survey, authors account for variations in
brand recognition before ranking the brands.

Despite the public's perception, Toyota underperformed the market in
December. U.S. light-vehicle sales declined 35.6 percent, but Toyota
lost 36.7 percent compared with December 2007.

Toyota also placed No. 1 and Honda No. 2 in consumers' perceptions of
quality and environmental friendliness. And Honda won first place in
value, with Toyota finishing second.

Ford, Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz filled out the rest of the survey's top
five brands overall. Mercedes finished in the top five for design and
Cadillac for technology. And both brands made the top five for quality.

But Mercedes ranked 27th and Cadillac 31st among the 34 brands Consumer
Reports studied in its 2008 reliability survey.

Consumers perceive these brands as among the best because of their
design, prestige and marketing, said Jeff Bartlett, Consumer Reports'
deputy online automotive editor.

'Wonderful first impression'

"Ultimately, these cars make a wonderful first impression, not only on
car shoppers, but also in the media," he said. "There are a lot of
positive road tests on these vehicles that ultimately don't hold up well
over time."

Suzuki, Mazda, Saab and Hummer received the lowest scores from consumers
ranking the best brands.

Safety ranked first as the most important quality consumers look for in
buying a new vehicle. Volvo leads the category in consumers' minds, with
71 percent saying it is the safest brand. Ford finished second,
receiving votes from 19 percent of consumers.

Quality, value, performance, environmental friendliness, design and
technology followed safety in importance for consumers when car shopping.

But 48 percent of those surveyed said they were delaying future car
purchases. Having a car in good shape was the top reason for putting off
a purchase, followed by vehicles' being too costly and worries about the
economy.

Delayed purchasing has already contributed to automakers' reports of
13.2 million U.S. light-vehicle sales in 2008 -- the worst sales year
since 1992. And 2008 closed with a sales rate of 10.4 million units,
well below the 12.5 million vehicles scrapped in the U.S. annually
because of accidents or malfunction.

Longer ownership

The average car ownership time may continue to rise, Bartlett said.

"That might put the average length of ownership just beyond what is
currently an average vehicle generation," he said. "If there's a vehicle
generation every four or five years, that might start to be a little too
quick, which may help the manufacturer."

Economic factors also caused survey respondents to place less emphasis
on performance and styling than in the study's two-year past, Bartlett said.

"People are very simply shifting from being want- and desire-driven to
being more need-driven," he said. "People are shopping more with their
wallets than with their hearts."

 

Still only clipping the things that you agree with, I see. (and
cutting and pasting the whole article).

I think Pat Buchanan recently likened that sort of thing to the drunk
leaning on the lamp post....not looking for enlightenment...looking
only for support.

 

Read it and weep.

 

A brand could rank best in the survey. The important question is, how
do they do in sales?

 

Twit